?So Why Care About the EU?

A frenzied mob, instigated by their cleric, accuses a woman of being a witch, strips her naked and debates whether to flay her alive or stone her dead. The cleric had earlier quoted the scripture to pronounce that women should not have authority over men and should devote themselves to wifely duties. The woman in question, a teacher, had earlier said she could not accept this religion, because she must question what she believed and that was not possible for those of the faith, who disdain other religions, insult their gods and even rampage against those who do not follow the true path. Guess which is this religion?

These are scenes from Agora, a 2009 film whose central character is Hypatia, a Greek philosopher in 4th-century Alexandria who becomes collateral damage when the city falls to the power and greed of the new religion on the rise, Christianity. It was Spain’s box-office hit of the year. This ability to hold out one’s own past as foil to one’s current prejudices is one reason why Europe matters. There are others, too. David Cameron’s announcement that he would conduct a referendum, were he to become Britain’s prime minister for a second term, on whether Britain should continue in the European Union, has created a stir in the 27-member EU. Cameron wants a reset of the Union, to make it more democratic, to remove the many rigidities in how society is organised that make Europe uncompetitive. The German chancellor has expressed willingness to try and accommodate Britain’s demands. France is not so sure. Both Britain’s exit from the Union and the efforts by other members to modify the terms of their Union in order to keep Britain in will affect the EU. Should India bother? Europe today, to bend a cliché, is the sick man of the world. It is a source of crisis, a Damocles’ sword hanging over the world economy, even its fast-growing, emerging bits. It sets negative examples, such as how not to organise welfare, of what ‘pay-asyou-go’ systems do to a nation when it ages and the ratio of working-age to dependent population worsens. Not so long ago, the violent passions that unleashed horror in the Balkans tore up the hope that Europe had left behind its history of war, after having staged two world wars. EU memberstates cooked their books, their banks behaved dishonourably, their refusal to admit Turkey as a member reeks of religious bigotry. Strategic analysts look to a future dominated by Asia and the US, Europe only a blind spot. Seriously, should India bother? The EU is a strange animal. It has 27 members, 22 of whom have abolished passport controls under the Schengen pact. Only 17 share a common currency. Even as they have a common market and work towards free movement of goods, services, capital and people and a common security policy, they have a plethora of bureaucratic bodies far removed from the people. Even to receive the recent Nobel prize for peace, two people walked up and gave two acceptance speeches. Should such a body strain India’s attention? Europe’s current travails should not blind us to its past achievements or future potential. Too much eurocentricism has been shoved down the throats of generations of students in their ex-colonies for the present lot to take Europe with anything but a tonne of salt. But then, too much of the stuff is bad for us. Look beyond the specificities of Europe to see the general advance that humanity has registered in Europe. Europe produced the Renaissance, democracy, nation-states, universities, libraries and patent offices to make scientific and technical advance the common property of humanity, fuelling further progress (in the absence of patents, which operate for a limited period, knowledge would die in familial or guild captivity, as it has in India). But that is the past. The future is the model of transnational cooperation that the EU represents. Globalisation is a process that enhances interdependence across the world. A cab driver’s job in Bangalore’s BPO hub Whitefield depends on local politics and corporate strategy in some US town, besides the efficacy of Bernanke’s quantitative easing. For such interdependence to produce welfare rather than chaos and frustration, the world needs governance structures that mediate this interdependence. As to how, guidance comes from EU’s myriad bureaucracies, apart from accepted transnational bodies such as the UN, the IMF and the WTO. The principle of subsidiarity guides the EU, even as its members pool sovereignty in different areas to varying extents. Subsidiarity means that, in a hierarchy of governance levels, each level gets to tackle only stuff that cannot be tackled better at lower level. it. leaves matters that are best tackled at a particular level to the level best suited to tackle them. It is easy to preach but difficult to practise. EU is a living laboratory for the rest of the world. In future, Scotland could negotiate subsidiarity directly with the EU. So could Tamil Nadu, Sindh and Chittagong in a south Asian association. By living out the pains of experimenting transnational coordination, the EU leads governance of globalisation. We should care.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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?So why care about the EU?

A frenzied mob, instigated by their cleric, accuses a woman of being a witch, strips her naked and debates whether to flay her alive or stone her dead. The cleric had earlier quoted the scripture to pronounce that women should not have authority over men and should devote themselves to wifely duties. The woman in question, a teacher, had earlier said she could not accept this religion, because she must question what she believed and that was not possible for those of the faith, who disdain other religions, insult their gods and even rampage against those who do not follow the true path. Guess which is this religion?

These are scenes from Agora, a 2009 film whose central character is Hypatia, a Greek philosopher in 4th-century Alexandria who becomes collateral damage when the city falls to the power and greed of the new religion on the rise, Christianity. It was Spain’s box-office hit of the year. This ability to hold out one’s own past as foil to one’s current prejudices is one reason why Europe matters. There are others, too. David Cameron’s announcement that he would conduct a referendum, were he to become Britain’s prime minister for a second term, on whether Britain should continue in the European Union, has created a stir in the 27-member EU. Cameron wants a reset of the Union, to make it more democratic, to remove the many rigidities in how society is organised that make Europe uncompetitive. The German chancellor has expressed willingness to try and accommodate Britain’s demands. France is not so sure. Both Britain’s exit from the Union and the efforts by other members to modify the terms of their Union in order to keep Britain in will affect the EU. Should India bother? Europe today, to bend a cliché, is the sick man of the world. It is a source of crisis, a Damocles’ sword hanging over the world economy, even its fast-growing, emerging bits. It sets negative examples, such as how not to organise welfare, of what ‘pay-asyou-go’ systems do to a nation when it ages and the ratio of working-age to dependent population worsens. Not so long ago, the violent passions that unleashed horror in the Balkans tore up the hope that Europe had left behind its history of war, after having staged two world wars. EU memberstates cooked their books, their banks behaved dishonourably, their refusal to admit Turkey as a member reeks of religious bigotry. Strategic analysts look to a future dominated by Asia and the US, Europe only a blind spot. Seriously, should India bother? The EU is a strange animal. It has 27 members, 22 of whom have abolished passport controls under the Schengen pact. Only 17 share a common currency. Even as they have a common market and work towards free movement of goods, services, capital and people and a common security policy, they have a plethora of bureaucratic bodies far removed from the people. Even to receive the recent Nobel prize for peace, two people walked up and gave two acceptance speeches. Should such a body strain India’s attention? Europe’s current travails should not blind us to its past achievements or future potential. Too much eurocentricism has been shoved down the throats of generations of students in their ex-colonies for the present lot to take Europe with anything but a tonne of salt. But then, too much of the stuff is bad for us. Look beyond the specificities of Europe to see the general advance that humanity has registered in Europe. Europe produced the Renaissance, democracy, nation-states, universities, libraries and patent offices to make scientific and technical advance the common property of humanity, fuelling further progress (in the absence of patents, which operate for a limited period, knowledge would die in familial or guild captivity, as it has in India). But that is the past. The future is the model of transnational cooperation that the EU represents. Globalisation is a process that enhances interdependence across the world. A cab driver’s job in Bangalore’s BPO hub Whitefield depends on local politics and corporate strategy in some US town, besides the efficacy of Bernanke’s quantitative easing. For such interdependence to produce welfare rather than chaos and frustration, the world needs governance structures that mediate this interdependence. As to how, guidance comes from EU’s myriad bureaucracies, apart from accepted transnational bodies such as the UN, the IMF and the WTO. The principle of subsidiarity guides the EU, even as its members pool sovereignty in different areas to varying extents. Subsidiarity means that, in a hierarchy of governance levels, each level gets to tackle only stuff that cannot be tackled better at lower level. it. leaves matters that are best tackled at a particular level to the level best suited to tackle them. It is easy to preach but difficult to practise. EU is a living laboratory for the rest of the world. In future, Scotland could negotiate subsidiarity directly with the EU. So could Tamil Nadu, Sindh and Chittagong in a south Asian association. By living out the pains of experimenting transnational coordination, the EU leads governance of globalisation. We should care.